Thanet District Council freedom of information act requests     |     home Thanet District Council freedom of information act requests   |   Freedom of information request 14.10.2009   |   Second freedom of information request 14.10.2009   |   Freedom of information act request 23.10.2009   |   Rsponse to myFreedom of information act request 23.10.2009   |   Complaint 2.11.2009   |   from blog   |   Council spending on this project   |   My complaint response reply 16.11.2009   |   FOI request 17.11.2009   |   Complaint 17.11.2009   |   Upper Marina esplanade incline.   |   Complaint 17.11.2009 response   |   From Blog 17.11.2009   |   Title 16   |   Review of the decision of the Council made on 20 November 2009   |   FOI ref; 11594 logged by TDC on 16.10.2009   |   my official response to your withholding the Pleasurama development agreement Upper Marina esplanade incline. . Starting at the top with the area by Augusta Stairs, this part of the chalk cliff collapsed in November of 1955 taking the previous steps there with it. Considerable reconstruction work was carried out there during 1956 and 1957 to provide a concrete structure that both supported the cliff there and provided new steps for pedestrian access. Unfortunately the civil engineers that designed this structure considerably underestimated the destructive forces involved in our cliff collapses. Four months before the work was due to have been completed, in February of 1957 a further collapse knocked down much of the support work that had already been done and much stronger work involving the use of much more concrete produced the steps we have today. As you can see the photograph avove (taken last week) the chalk cliff here is once more moving outward, the tell tale cracks in the road surface and the displacement between the pavement curb and the raised curb, to prevent out of control vehicles going over the cliff are indicators. The ground here also appears to be sinking, as you can see from photo above the bottom of the wall between the road and the top of the steps. These are newspaper clippings about the previous collapse first 13th feb 1957. this 30th oct 1957 and this oct 1957 Unfortunately as you can see from the photograph above it would appear that another fault is developing in the chalk some distance behind the cliff face. The concrete balustrade shown in the picture above has also moved horizontality. as you can see in the pictures above Finally if you look carefully at the wall of the Marina Restaurant you will see it is unusually thick and from the considerable difficulty in demolishing them, evidenced by the lack of cracks even close to the stresses caused by smashing the roof in, very strong. My research into this sort of Victorian civil engineering suggests that the primary function of this wall at right angles to the cliff face and connected to it, were to support the cliff. Now most of the walls have been knocked down one wonders about the cliff support here now.